'If the government was serious about co-opting the corporate sector meaningfully in the fight against COVID-19, it could have specified activities beyond cheque-writing,' notes Kanika Datta.
Three new categories -- all asymptomatic healthcare workers working in non-COVID hospitals/areas of COVID hospitals/blocks, asymptomatic frontline workers such as surveillance workers deployed in containment zones and paramilitary/police personnel involved in COVID-19 related activities -- have now been included.
More than two weeks after a wall collapsed in suburban Mumbai, killing 30 people and injuring more than 100, Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore and Hitesh Harisinghani visit the area to know how the survivors devastated by the deluge are coping with their lives.
Two men came on a motorcycle and threw a grenade in front of the shopping mall at arterial R G Baruah Road just opposite the zoo around 8 pm.
Vikram J Singh, the highest-ranking Indian American at the Pentagon is quitting his administration job to head up the national security division at the Center for American Progess -- a Washington, DC progressive think tank with close links to President Obama -- which has at its helm another Indian American, Neera Tanden.
Other strong men have stopped Modi and his hordes in states before, but none of them with a footprint or battle cry to shake up New Delhi, observes Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
The massive earthquake in Sichuan struck at 9:19 pm (local time) on Tuesday and the epicentre was monitored at a depth of 20 km, state-run Xinhua new agency reported.
The stage on which the Jammu and Kashmir flood disaster played out is littered with protagonists, most of whom did not receive the attention they deserve, says Ajai Shukla
'If a major earthquake of the kind that hit Nepal hits us in Delhi, 35 per cent of our homes would be destroyed.'
A new 7.3-magnitude earthquake and seven powerful aftershocks struck Nepal on Tuesday killing at least 50 people and triggering panic in the Himalayan nation already devastated by a monster temblor less than three weeks ago that had claimed over 8,000 lives.
More than 1,25,000 people have been rescued from the flood-ravaged parts of Jammu and Kashmir so far as the relief operations launched by the Armed forces entered the 11th day on Friday.
As India logged a world record of over four lakh coronavirus infections on Saturday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the entire world is shaken by what is happening here and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "dropping the ball and throwing it to states" after prematurely taking credit for having "won against COVID-19" when the second wave was already underway. "Rely on yourself is the motto. No one will come to help you. Definitely, not the prime minister," Gandhi said, while alleging that the COVID-19 situation has gone completely out of control for the Modi government, and wondered whether it was their way of making the states and the citizens truly 'Aatmanirbhar'.
As per the book, Trump insists to Woodward he would triumph over the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic calamity. "Don't worry about it, Bob. OK?" Trump told the author in July. "Don't worry about it. We'll get to do another book. You'll find I was right."
'The world's patience on terrorist safe havens is running thin and that is not good for Pakistan'
'Since each chief single-mindedly pursues his service's interests in the competition for turf and in core matters such as budget share. The CDS, therefore, must act as an "honest broker" whose decisions serve the broader national purpose, rather than narrow service interests,' says Ajai Shukla.
Life in Mumbai was on Wednesday slowly coming back on tracks as rains subsided and hundreds of stranded commuters headed home with the partial resumption of suburban train services.
The Opposition on Thursday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying his note ban decision was "reckless".
'I am proud of Maharashtra and the city of Mumbai, that this is a state which has done more number of tests than any state in India.' 'The more you test, the more number of cases you will pick up.' 'If you do not do the tests, then you are groping in the dark.'
You can make all the speeches you want, you cannot argue against 39 straight months of slowing, observes Aakar Patel.
For the current woes of the state to end, in city after city, town after town, village after village, unauthorised constructions have to be removed, no questions asked, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Four decades of federal evolution made India more secure, but coronavirus is reversing that. Modi's central government has tasted power again and is unlikely to give it up, notes Shekhar Gupta.
Uttarakhand was a tragedy that none of us will forget. As experts analysed the tragedy, it became clear that the disaster was more man made. The intergovernmental panel on climate change in its Assessment Report 5 states that human influence on the climate system is clear and this is evident from the increasing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, positive radiative forcing, observed warming, and understanding of the climate system.
More than 3,000 squads under health and local self-government departments have started the process of cleaning houses and public places, official sources said.
A relatively dry spell in Chennai and its neighbourhood brought relief to the flood affected residents and rescue agencies, as hopes of water receding fast went up.
One wonders where the inestimable Syed Ali Shah Geelani and his gang of separatist leaders have disappeared.
'If you delay the diagnosis even by 24 hours, in that 24 hours individuals would have affected more people.' 'So, contact tracing, testing, isolation, quarantine needs to continue.'
For deciding which vehicles are to be scrapped, the setting up of fitness centres and regulating them would be a humongous task.
The official cited it as an example of 'how the Chinese military is trying to resolve issues through dialogue mechanisms'.
Around 13 million people continue to battle "catastrophic" flooding and torrential rains in storm-ravaged Texas where Hurricane Harvey has wreaked havoc.
As the pandemic unfolded, the India-China relationship has come under severe stress. To restore normalcy, agreements between the two countries must be respected scrupulously in their entirety. Where the Line of Actual Control is concerned, any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo is unacceptable, declares External Affairs Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
Khan also said Pakistan has decided to partner any other country only for peace and named the partnership with the US as the one.
Sitharaman said keeping morale of forces at the highest level was among the priorities of the government.
Read the full transcript of President Obama's State of the Union address on Wednesday at the US Capitol in Washington.
Hospital authorities said of the deceased at the GTB, at least nine received gun shots. One of the deceased is also a woman, they said.
What happened in Uttarakhand is a national tragedy. Why couldn't Dr Manmohan Singh announce that he was forming an Uttarakhand Relief and Rehabilitation Committee, with himself as chairman but inviting Narendra Modi to become the deputy chairman, asks T V R Shenoy.
The Looming Tower reveals the bitter CIA-FBI turf battles that led to the worst terrorist attack in America's history.
At least a dozen officers from Gujarat are handling key assignments in various important central positions
The conservative bureaucracy that influences the political masters is clearly not concerned with the vision documents prepared by defence chiefs to bring India's military into a state of preparedness, says Seema Mustafa
All international passengers will henceforth be screened at airports, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said at a press conference. Earlier, travellers from only 12 countries were screened at airports for the disease that has claimed over 3,000 lives and infected more than 90,000 worldwide.
Lives "will once again be at risk" if funding is not urgently secured, United Nations officials have said on the eve of the first anniversary of a military crackdown that forced them to flee their country.
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